KL – 77th most liveable city

The quality of life in Kuala Lumpur is better in 2012, but is still nowhere near the standard in many Australian cities.

FEATURE

PETALING JAYA: A recent survey by international business magazine The Economist labelled Malaysia’s capital as the world’s 77th most liveable city, one rank up from last year.

The 2012 Global Liveability Survey, which polled 140 cities across the world, saw Kuala Lumpur beating most of its regional neighbours – except Singapore – when it came to quality of life.

Kuala Lumpur achieved a score of 74.0, which, according to the survey’s overview, was defined as: “Day-to-day living is fine, in general, but some aspects of life may entail problems.”

Indonesia and Thailand’s capitals, Jakarta and Bangkok, scored 118th and 101st positions respectively, with both climbing one rank this year. The Philippines’ Manila stayed at 105th.

Singapore, on the other hand, dropped to 52nd place, falling by one rank in 2012.

Accoding to the list, Kuala Lumpur is better than China’s Shanghai though still behind Israel’s Tel Aviv.

However, it is still far behind many Australian cities; four of which are in the survey’s top 10. Melbourne tops the list, while Adelaide, Sydney and Perth pull in at 5th, 7th and 9th respectively.

In comparison, the world’s worst city in terms of liveability was Bangladesh’s Dhaka, which beat Zimbabwe’s Harare and Papua New Guinea’s Port Moresby to rule the bottom of the pile.

Conflict, according to the report, accounted for many of the lowest scores. Civil unrest and the threat of conflict, a strong spectre in countries affected by the Arab Spring, had a strong influence on the global rankings.

(The higher the score, the more tolerable a city is.)

All cities are ranked according to stability (threat of conflict or unrest), available healthcare, culture and environment, education and public infrastructure.

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